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Sunday, September 28, 2014

Roman Lob represented Germany in 2012 in Baku at the Eurovision Song Contest and reached 8th place in the grand final. Now he is back with his new album "HOME", which includes 13 brand new tracks. One of them is his first single 'All That Matters'.

Roman Lob - "All That Matters" (Official Video)

Now you have the chance to WIN one of three copies from Roman's album "HOME".

The only thing you have to do is to answer one simple question:

With which song represented Roman Lob Germany 2012 at the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku?

Friday, September 26, 2014

After their Eurovision participation the family band Firelight is back with their first studio album called 'Backdrop Of Life'. The album includes 11 tracks.

Who ever sat on a camp fire, felt the warmth of the fire on the skin, heard the crackling of burning logs and the gentle and pure flicker has captured with his eyes, who knows the security, warmth and familiarity that triggers a campfire. That's the magical from the Firelight sound.

Tracklist "Backdrop Of Life":

Coming Home 02:56

Her Song 03:12

Bite The Bullet 03:37

Black & Blue 04:01

Talk Dirty 03:24

Victor 03:56

Diesel 03:07

A Hole Joe 04:03

Nobody But You 03:42

Busking For Your Love 04:33

Backdrop Of Life 03:43

We had the chance to Pre-Listen to the album and we think you shouldn't miss to listen to these songs:

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Raphael Gualazzi is an italian singer and componist. He represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2011 with the song 'Madness Of Love'. Italy returned in that year to the Eurovsion competition since they withdraw in 1997. It was a spectacular comeback for Italy - Raphael reached 2nd place in the final, 38 points behind the winners from Azerbaijan, Ell & Nikki, with their song 'Running Scared'.

Do you remember his Eurovision entry?

Raphael Gualazzi - 'Madness Of Love'

Raphael will tour in November through Germany. Here are the dates and events on Facebook:

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

On 27th of September the Dreamwork animationsfilm 'The Penguins of Madagascar' a spin-off film of the Madagascar film series will be shown in German cinemas and movie theatres in Switzerland. On the 28th of September, the cinemas in Austria will take in movie into their programm. Fans of the Eurovision Song Contest will recognize the voice of snow owl Eva, it is Conchitas voice. The character shows an analyst of Nordwind intelligence organisation and will speak German with an Russian accent. With lending her voice to the character Conchita shows once again her variety of her talents.

France as one the 'Big 5' is set for the final, means the French artist needn't to perform the song in one of the semifinals on 19th or 21st of May next year in Vienna at the 60th Eurovision Song Contest. The national broadcaster France brought back the Competition from France3 to France2, which has already been responsible for the broadcasting and selections of artists and songs in the 1980's and 1990's. The bad results of the French entries since 2003 may be a reason fo the broadcasting unit. In the last decade Frensh artist achieved only one top 10 position with Partica Kaas in 2009 (8th place). All other entries came behind place 12 - 6 of them 20th or worse with the negativ result in the ESC 2014 in Copenhagen when the group TwinTwin ended on the last place with just 2 points collected in the end. It seems the Frensh broadcaster wants to change the image of France in the competition and to promote the Eurovision Song Contest. France2 will now be in charge to find the representative for France in an internal selection.

In 2015, the popular Swedish national selection will be changed and with that change undergo the biggest renewal since 2002. A third place in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 for Sanna Nielsen does not reflect the down going star of the concept of the Melodfestivalen in Sweden itself. About 800.000 less viewers in this year's national selection, unhappy record labels and presenters who were criticsized during the selection made the responsable persons within Swedish broadcaster SVT renew the concept of the competition to install a Melodifestivalen in which people show back more interest in. Thus the numbers of show will be the same (4 semifinals, a second chance and the grand final), the numbers of participants will be reduced from 8 to 7 in each semifinal. Means instead of 32 competitors 28 participants will fight to represent one of the moste successful countries in Vienna. From every semifinal 2 entries will qualify directly to the final, the songs placed on 3rd and 4th will have a second chance to qualify a week ahead the final. In this show - Andra chancen - instead of 2 as it was during the last years 4 - so half of the line up - will qualify for the final, which means in the last Show 12 participants fight for the golden ticket to Vienna. The viewers will have a chance to vote for their songs already during the competition but the votes per person is limited to 20 for one song, but as many songs as they want. SVT works also on an app whichh could replace the televoting - if you want to. The submission phase for artists and songwriters are already closed and SVT announced that about 2.177 entries were received for the Melodifestivalen. in the upcoming days a Swedish jury will sit together and find out the 28 semifinalists and at the same time as they will announce the participants they als will tell when, in which cities and in whch venues the semifinals, the second chance show and the final will take place.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Maltas 2014 Eurovision Song Contest entry Firlight will release their album on the 24th of September live on television. The Maltese broadcaster TVM will show the launch of the debut album called 'backdrop of life' on the 24th of September at 19:20 CET.According to original plans the group wanted to bring their songs to the audiance already out in February but after winning the Maltese national selection the release date was moved. But now it is here. The allbum includes some songs which they already performed at a gig at the Beer Festival 2014 at Ta' Qali National Park. After the release of the album, Firelight will tour around Germany, where their label Dystany Records are placed and Austria, where the next ESC will take place. On concert for example will be take place at the Night club at Hotel 'Bayrischer Hof'. The special thing about this concert: it is an exclusive concert for about 200 people with no entry fee, you just have to be one of the first 200 guests! see details here.And with their album release they have something special for their fans, especially in facebook. Each fan who changed its facebook profil picture into a special picture and subscribe (can be find here) during the 22th of September and 29th of September can win a special fanpackage of the group. So light your fire!

Find out more about Firelight, follow them and find the dates when and where they will perform - it's worth it:

'J’espère que tu vas bien' is called the new singel of French singer and songwriter Patrick Fiori. He released a new video for the single on 9th of September. It is a duet with a newcomer artist called Tommy who was the warm up act during his previous tour.

Patrick released a few month ago his album called 'Choisir' to celerbrate the 20th anniversary of his break through in French music market. Send by France to Millstreet in 1993 he achieved with his song 'Marna Corsica' the 4th place in Ireland.

It is also announced that you can see Patrick during his next tour from October 2014 to April 2015 in France, Belgium and Monaco. 40 dates are already named. Find out more about Patrick and his music:

Softengine represented this year in Copenhagen their home country Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Something Better'. They reached 11th place in the Eurovision final, which is the best result for Finland since the victory from Lordi in 2006.

Watch their Eurovision 2014 performance of 'Something Better':

We had the chance to talk to Softengine on 6th of September on the Eurovision Cruise in the afternoon. Read our interview below to find out what they had to say...

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Jessy Matador represented France in 2010 in Oslo. With his song 'Allez olla olé' he came 12th at the competition.

As a singer in the African New style movement he is now back with a solo project wheras a album will follow. During the last 4 years he worked with different artist on albums and singles. The artists cam from a wide area of music styles. Right now he is part of a realtiy show called 'L'îlw sw vérités 4' which is broadcasted from French Polynesia. This is underlining his statement that as an artist he does not care about what people may think or say. Already commenting his participation in the Eurovision 2010 shows this attitude: “People said that I would ruin my career but I did it for my professional experience. I went on to reach the top of the charts for 6 consecutive weeks thanks to it. Let people think whatever they want!”He also were asked about Conchita Wurst victory. His answer was: “This is just an awesome proof of tolerance. Sincerely, if we could really be the same in France, things would be very different. Conchita’s victory demonstrates that anyone can succeed, whatever one’s difference is. Everyone has a place in this world.”

Axel Hirsoux represented Belgium in Copenhagen in the 59th Eurovision Song Contest with his song 'Mother'. Even he didn't made it to the final, Axel did get a 4 sets of 12 points from the jury and had more than 50% of the votes in the Belgium national selection.

Now he released his new Single calles 'Bellissimo'. The song is also available in itunes.

ESC-Winner 2014 Conchita Wurst got an invitation by Members of the European Parliament to perform their songs in front of the parliament.On 8th of October at the Esplanade Solidarnosc, which is in the front of the European Parliament at 13:00 CET the artist will give a one-hour concert. Conchita who always stands for love, tolerance and against discrimination stated: 'When you are committed to love, respect and tolerance, you enter a large movement supported by the people in Europe and in the political world, even though it is fought back by certain forces'

Conchita invites artist and audiance to participate in the 60th edition of the Contest next year in Vienna. Also the slogan of next years competition stands for the fight against discrimination: 'Building Bridges'.

Conchita won the 59. Eurovision Song Contest this year in Copenhagen with her song 'Rise like a Phoenix' and brought home the Eurovision Song Contest to Austria for the second time in history.

Estonia will know on the 21st of February who will represt the Baltic country in Austria. On the 7th and the 14th of February the 2 semifinal will be held. 10 songs in each semifinal will fight for the chance to present their songs in national final on 21st of February. The top 5 entries of the first and second semifinal will participate and battle for the three spots (one more than last year) of the superfinal. The song which is most successful in the superfinal will be send to Vienna to held up high the Estonian flag. Estonian artists who want to get the chance to represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Constest can submit their entries from now on until the 1st of December 2014. On the 5th of December a jury will announce the 20 songs which will paritipate in the semifinals. Rules and application process can be found on the homepage of Estonian broadcaster ERR.After its indepence in 1991, Estonia participates in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1994. But the start wasn't as successful. The second last place in front of the neighbour Lithuania ment a break iin 1995. After entering the contest again in 1996 a very sucessful era started. During the year 1996-2002 Estonia made it in the top 8 in six of the seven competitions including one victory in 2001:

1996 - Maarja-Liss Ilus and Ivo Linna - 'Kaelakee hääl'

They came 5th in the ESC-Final which meant the first top 5 result for a former Soviet country.

1997 - Maarja-Liss Ilus - 'Keelatud maa'

The artist from 1996 came 8th in this year.

1999 - Evelin Samuel and Camille - 'Diamond of Night' - 6th Place

2000 - Ines - 'Once in a lifetime' - 4th place

2001 - Tanal Padar / Dave Benton / 2XL - 'Everybody - WINNER

2002 - Sahlene - 'Runaway' - 3rd place

Since 2003 Estonia get to know the other side of the medal. Despite energetic songs, balads and being audiance favorits in the competition, in 12 competitions the Baltic country only could reach the final 5 times, coming 6th twice (2009 and 2012) and behind place 20 (2003: 21st, 2011: 24th, 2013: 20th)Also in 2014 when Tanja represented Estonia with "Amazing" in Copenhagen, the final was not reached. So Estonia will give it a new start in 2015.

The Common Linnets already performed their follow up single 'Give Me A Reason' end of August in the Netherlands in the RTL LATE NIGHT show besides their Eurovision entry 'Calm After The Storm' and some other songs from the album. Now they released the official video for 'Give Me A Reason'.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Sunstroke Project feat. Olia Tira represented 2010 Moldova at the Eurovision Song Contest in Norway with the song 'Run Away'. Their party song reached only 22nd place in the final with 27 points. Since that time they are still very active in recording music. Band members are Sergey Ialovitsky (Vocal), Anton Ragoza (violinist / composer) and Sergey Stepanov (Epic Sax Guy). Today they released their new collaboration single 'Sunshine' together with Deepcentral.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

While other countries not yet have decided if they will take part in the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest other countries are already in their national selection phase. Malta is one of the last ones. In about 2,5 weeks on the 3rd of October during the Friday night show Xarabank, 20 semifinalists will be announced. The choosen songs will have the chance to get the final ticket for the national selection on 21st of November and on the 22nd of November to get the golden ticket for representing Malta in Vienna. The national selection will be held in Malta Shipbuilding, an old Shipyard in Valetta. One week ahead Malta is also the host of the 12th Junior Eurovision Song Contest. This years Maltese selection take place in a very early stage due to some rules changed by Maltese broadcaster PBS.How many artist compete for the 20 semifinal tickets is not published. but the finalists and the representative for Malta will be found by televoting and jury decision. Malta is part of the Eurovision Song Contest family since 1971. With a break in 1973 and 1974, 1976 - 1990, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 the island in the MediterraneanSea participated 27 up to now. The best places for Malta was a 2nd place in 2002 and 2005. In 2014 the band Firlight performed their song 'coming home' and achieved a 23rd place in the grand final in Copenhagen.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Like in other countries as well the process in finding the artist to represent Germany in Vienna next year has just started. Until the 9th of January 2015 every artist or band can upload his performance in a video on youtube in the channel 'Unser-song-fuer-oesterreich'.

The best 10 musicians will bei perform their act in a club-concert in Hamburg on 19th of February 2015. The concert will be broadcasted live by the national TV-boradcaster NDR. It also can be seen in a live stream on eurovision.de and different other internet homepages. The viewers of the concert can vote for their favorite and bring the winner to the national selection in Hannover on the 5th of March.

In the national selection Germany will find its representative for Vienna. Seven national already wel known artist and the wildcard band will fight for the ticket to Austrian capital.

All shows will be hosted by Barbara Schöneberger who already did that job last year. In an interview she told, that the Eurovision Song Contest is a stated happening in the year like Christmas or Carneval and she is already very curious who will make it to Vienna.

Songwriter and singer Andreas Boruani, who is creator of the song of the World Cup Song for Germany in soccer this sommer 'Auf uns', invited young artist to participate for the WildCard. 'It is the only possibility to pass all well-known artist and to reach a national and international audiance.' he said. Indeed was it a Wildcard group who won last years clubconcert and the national selection and represented Germany in Copenhagen: Elaiza, who came 18th with her song 'Is it right?'.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Suzy represented this year in Copenhagen her home country Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest with the party song 'Quero ser tua'. Unfortunately she missed one point to get her ticket to the final.

Watch her Eurovision 2014 performance of 'Quero ser tua':

We had the chance to talk to Suzy on 19th of July in Berlin in the hotel before she went to the Eurovision Weekend soundchek. Read our interview below to find out what she had to say...

Waylon represented this year the Netherlands with Ilse de Lange as The Common Linnets with their song 'Calm After The Storm'. As big surprise in this years competition the reached 2nd place, after this years Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst, and got the best result for the Netherlands since many many years.

Only some days after Eurovision final there were rumors about a break between Ilse and Waylon. Some promotion dates did Ilse without Waylon and some weeks later he confirmed on his twitter profile that The Common Linnets will be no longer with him.

In the last month he worked hard on his solo album 'Heaven After Midnight' and released it last week. The album includes twelve songs that were all written within ten days in Nashville. The recording took place in the legendary Capitol Studios in Hollywood.

Waylon worked with very talented musicians and producers who have co-created songs for artists like Madonna, Joni Mitchell, Michael Jackson and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

"When I walked into the studio, I had to take a minute to let it all sink in.", Waylon says.

The Big 5 family is complete. After Germany and United Kingdom already confirmed their participation during the last months, now also Spain, Italy and France confirmed that they will being part in the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song contest. Together with Austria, the host country, they are the first known participants in the grand final on 23th of May next year in the City hall of Vienna. United Kingdom, France and Germany are the Countries with the most participation during the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. Spain is part of the Big 5 since 1999 (until Italy's return in 2011 called Big 4). It's first participation was in 1961 and ever since. Italy as a founder of the competition had some breaks during the history (1981-1982, 1986, 1994-1996, 1998-2010).Nearly all countries which founded the Song Contest in 1956 will be part of the 60th edition of the competion (Austria, Begium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands). Only Luxembourg wiill be missed next year. In total the big 5 had 19 victoriesFrance 5 (1958, 1960, 1962, 1969, 1977),United Kingdom 5 (1967, 1969, 1976, 1981, 1997)Germany 2 (1982, 2010),Italy 2 (1964, 1990), Spain 2 (1968, 1969)